We've only had our Trooper a week but already i can tell he is very aloof with strangers,he gets a lot of attention ,as where we live in PA you dont really see GSDs in the
Petsmart or walking in the getgo parking lot..mostly the ones you see are working K9s. I know by just watching his body he is not fond of people just coming up to grab and pet him ( i wouldnt either) .So far we haven't had that problem since he is already so big (68 lb) most people ask. We have a yellow ribbon on his leash in public which usually instigates people to ask why.." because hes in training" which isnt a lie ;they usually understand this ,just tell me he is pretty and move on. He isnt used to small children so if they ask to pet him i tell their parents no they may not and politely walk away..i dont want to push him to fast with kids as they can be much more obtrusive than 'some' adults. Those adults who do ask to pet him ..some that is; I tell them " let him sniff you first,and please dont go straight for his head" he may sniff them once but only three strangers has he let pet him.One was a very nice police officer .Iv also noticed when asking him to "sitz" ( we decided on tradition with training him) when in public people tend to steer away...i guess a dog whos being trained in german is incentive not to run up and pet him. I want him aloof to strangers but not scared or aggressive to them. Just my two cents .

true that weak nerved dogs are the ones who have issues with strangers and things in public. this is why focus and training are so important. you need to be on the ball with the surroundings. gaining your dogs trust and redirecting things through fucus etc help. with Sam, i usually will make the decision to approach people taking the lead. then he knows i am in control of the situation. when i get to someone i will make him sit and have a conversation with them in a happy calm voice. i do tell them he doesn't like to be petted by strangers, but if he wants to smell them i let him, but just because a dog wants to smell someone doesn't mean they want to be petted. although it is good that they are curious to smell and it means they are not in fearful mode.

My male is gigantic so very few people want to pet him unless they know him well. He goes off leash everywhere and people are very intimidated by him. He's an aloof dog who's never acted aggressive in a public social situation but I still ask anyone who wants to pet him to pet his back not his head.

My male is gigantic so very few people want to pet him unless they know him well. He goes off leash everywhere and people are very intimidated by him. He's an aloof dog who's never acted aggressive in a public social situation but I still ask anyone who wants to pet him to pet his back not his head.

How does he react if some stranger does try to pet him on top of his head?

Reason i ask is that my male GSD reacts differently to different people - most he doesn't mind at all and doesn't even seem to notice it as he is being friendly.

With a few people he will move his head so as to keep his nose near their hand - not aggressivelly or shying away as his body doesn't move. He just throws his head back as if to keep an eye on their hand.

I actively approach people on the street to pet my 6 month old GSD. I want him to be balanced and socialized with both dogs and people. I completely understand if someone has a dog that has fear issues with new situations/people/dogs, but as I have read on previous posts - if you have a mentally healthy, well balanced dog, why wouldn't you want them to meet and greet and have all kinds of different experiences? I believe this helps to create a well adjusted individual. A well balanced (non-fearful) dog is a happy dog and that's all I want for my dog. So, yes - I will go out of my way to interact with various people, dogs and situations and I think this is helping my boy to reach his great potential (which is the moon).

unless its someone I know I tell people not to pet my dog. If I dont know you or your dog I dont want the person running up or approaching me out of the blue. That goes outside dog situations too. Just because every person on the block doesnt pet the dog wont make it aggressive or un-socialized

If someone asks and they don't look sketchy to me or like a complete moron, sometimes I will say 'yes you can pet her, but please don't touch her ears", but some people that I would rather not touch her (usually people that are half drunk or causing issues in our evening walks) I tell them that they are not allowed to pet her because she is training or does not like to be approached.

Some people use the question "does she bite" as a way of asking if they can pet her, and to them I usually say "I am not sure" so that they don't want to pet her anymore. Unless it's a child, when they ask that I say "no, she's friendly, let me put her in a sit first" because I let children pet her always since she LOVES children and I dont want kids to grow up being afraid of dogs.

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I don't bother with trying to explain Ilka's reactivity. I always tell people, and kids especially, since she really doesn't like strange children, to stay back. I just say "I'm sorry, but she's not always friendly".

I tell them she's a bit reactive so to please keep thier distance. It's doesn't help though. I've had people say "Oh that's ok, ALL dogs like me, or ALL dogs like my dog" and then they act surprised that she reacted. *rolleyes*

It's really hard to train and socialize in a public setting because of this, and I live in the country, so it's either take my chances that something will happen with another dog if I take her out, or keep her more isolated, which does not help either.

I've been doing some classes to work specifically on her reactivity, and I *think* we're having some small successes. My dog is actually more over-excited than anything, but it's really hard to work at keeping her under her threshold when nobody respects her personal bubble.

But yeah, people on the street are freaking hopeless! You can tell them, but they still don't listen half the time.

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